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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

even though we're probably about to crest, i thought i'd just add the link for the Peoria River Guage site to the links on the left. i hate to get linky but i hate having to go find that site every time we get a bunch of water. so enjoy.

oh, and Nacho did confirm that he mostly looks at the Peoria guage to determine our flooding and that "24 in the door" means, 24 predicited at Peoria and we have water in the garage. as i've said, i like to go by the Henry guage cuz by the time it hits Peoria, it's passed me by. so there seems to be a difference of about 4.61 feet. so 24 Peoria = 28.61 Henry. if you are that creative (MOSER, TODD), feel free to compose a rhyme for 28.61, otherwise, 28 will do.

hmmm.....28-er, get the waders! 28 plus, get in the kayak bus! 28 high, here comes the tide!

judging from what i saw in the yard last night and then again this morning. i'd say we're crested at the house. Henry crested yesterday. of course i don't have any pics cuzi'm lazy. sorry. can't seem to do much about that lately.the truth is i'm too busy playing The Blob - that game is gonna give me an aneurysm and quite possibly a divorce!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

i've been giggling at this most of the day. and usually i don't keep spam emails. just dump them directly from my spam folder. but i saw this one and decided i had to keep it. i've also decided in the last month or so, that that's the job i want. the person who makes up the subject lines for spam email! what a job! right up there with the guy who calibrates the waterfall of icing at Krispy Kreme.

Monday, December 29, 2008

so yes, we are going to leave 2008 much the same way we spent most of it....flooded. for those that like to track it, here's the link for Henry and here's the link for Peoria guages. i like to go by Henry cuz by the time it's at Peoria, well, it's passed us by. but Nacho's catch phrase this week is "24 in the door" and i believe he's using Peoria gauges for that. so we should be okay. it's quite possible we'll have water around the house (and if we're "lucky" it will freeze and become the new hockey rink), but we don't think we'll have it in the garage. i hope he's right since we'll be gone New Year's. we'll leave you a bucket Jordan!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Monday, December 22, 2008

and this is different from any other day when BP won't leave me alone! Angie reign that man in will ya?Someone will be giving you an awful lot of attention today, but you might not be comfortable with it. If so, your best tactic is to try to ignore them. You can't try to fake it, but there is also no need to hurt their feelings or embarrass them with overcomplicated apologies. Instead, just carry on with normal relations and sooner or later they will get the picture that you aren't interested. Then they will likely give up and move on to someone else.

another year and another puzzle. figuratively and literally. this past weekend was our Christmas Tradition weekend. cue the music, open the wine, and break out the puzzle. this is actually the first year we finished the whole thing. as in, the first year the Monsters didn't eat a pice or 2. they did however destroy the box, and possibly, the original puzzle i bought for this year while we were in Beaver Creek. since we managed to finish the replacement puzzle super early, we're taking the remaining pieces of the 1st puzzle and working on it the next 3 nights. we'll see how much of that is left! oh, and in answer to some questions i've gotten about this: - we typically do this during the "12 days of Christmas" - when we're done, we take the puzzle to Goodwill or offer to a kid's school if we know someone that wants it - no tv, phone, etc. just Christmas music the entire time. suffice it to say, we have a healthy disdain of Wham UK's Last Christmas. and we have an awesome nacho-ized version of it! - average wine consumption = 4 bottles (not all in one night people)

Sunday, December 21, 2008

i've never understood the disappointment that surrounds the shortest day of the year or the excitement for the longest. but nacho is all about both of those. as the summer solstice approaches i get to hear all about how crappy it is that "the days are getting shorter from here on out." and then today, hooray! "the days are getting longer now!" like somehow you've been cheated and then you won it all back! i just don't get it. well, in summer we have a tradition for the solstice. we take the day (or at least half of it) and just me and nacho hit the river to ski as late as we can. my favorite was last year when we skied until about 930p. we got robbed this year due to bad weather. but what do ya do for the winter solstice? never thought about that before. we don't have an activity. i guess sleep in. but then again i celebrate that every Fri, Sat and Sun. guess i'll need a different tradition for the winter solstice. well, happy longer days people!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Thursday, December 4, 2008

B - you know how to measure the speed of light using a microwave?D - chirp chirpB - blah blah blah....non rotating microwave....blah .....chocolate.....blah....scorch marks.....2.blah GHz....multiply....and that will tell you the speed of light in secondsD - chirp chirp

today is my work Christmas party. unlike traditional work parties, i actually look forward to this one. i should also clarify, that we don't do the full office party. our little group of IT nerds do our own party. we're not about the feelings and spirit of love this season kinda thing. we prefer the cynical, condescending spirit of the season. each year we try to do something different. our first 3 years were trips to the movies to watch the Lord of the Rings movies. last year was supposed to be The Golden Compass but it never happened. we've also done bowling and a delayed spring party of goofy golf. it didn't take long for our party to catch on and now the "touch-feely" IT staff ask about our party each year and ask to be invited. remember the cynical/condescending thing i mention? yeah, well, they don't get invited. so this years party is Wii goodness at my bosses house. we leave today at 11a for lunch (the traditional IT technie cuisine of Chinese booofaaa) and then it's on to Mark's newly finished basement for serious competition! if pictures are taken, they will be posted!

Monday, December 1, 2008

i'm spending today in a self-induced food comma. we headed up to Chicago this past weekend and were treated to a weekend of amazing food by DaKims! i CANNOT say enough about the restaurants they treated us to. Sat lunch was at Urban Belly. because we'd eaten so much sushi the night before (i forget the name of that place), Nacho and i shared an appetizer of Chicken and Mushroom Dumplings and then Asian Egg Noodles. for me, coming off a hideous cold the entire week before, i decided i will drive up to Urban Belly the next time i get sick. this was truly comfort food.Sat night we went to Custom House. DEAR GOD! we had a 4 course with wine pairings that were unreal! i think these were the best oysters i've ever had and i never eat oysters when i'm away from home! they were also nice enough to write down all the wines we had so i could get a 2nd job to afford my new addiction. lots of amazing food and a beautiful restaurant! the best part was watching nacho "doctor" his coffee. he does not know the word MODERATION!as if we hadn't had enough food to last us for the next week, yesterday was brunch at Green Zebra. i could not pass up the chance to try their version of grits. what could (1) someone from the city and (2) a vegetarian restaurant know about a Southern staple? i found out LOTS! to date, the best Bloody Mary i've ever had. this will change my own recipe! a HUGE thanks to Charles' sister for treating us so well at both her restaurants. we couldn't have been more impressed or more grateful!we could not thank DaKims enough for leading us around by the nose and the stomach. this was a blast. i didn't mind the impromptu What Not to Wear that Katie treated me to. thanks for subjecting yourself to all that and temping at BR! for the safety of all concerned, i will not comment on Friday night Uno. what happened in the condo stays in that condo - literally, you won't be able to get it out of there!

Friday, November 14, 2008

i've never been one to ask for the conventional birthday, anniversary or Christmas gifts. my greatest hits include a back-pack vacuum cleaner, Stihl tiller, and interior molding. i know, hard to imagine i stayed single for so long. so for our anniversary this year, i looked up traditional and contemporary gifts for 10 years. right now there's someone doing the math saying, "hey, you guys have only been married 7 years?" but when i looked at what those gifts were, i couldn't work with that list. so i checked out 10 cuz technically that's how long we've been together! I AM NOT COMPLETELY STUPID. as most guys who've passed the 10 year mark will know, one of the suggestions is DIAMONDS (and if you didn't know that, better memorize that one). but as i said, i've never been one to ask for the conventional gift. so somewhere i found that aluminum was a 10-year gift too. right now, there's some guy who knows me saying "i so know where she's going with this!" and "nacho, you lucky bastard!" and "well, except for that sleeping with one eye open thing!" so meet Estelle. my reward for 10 years of hard work. and believe me, i earned all 15'6" of this baby! thanks Nacho! LM/TM

Monday, November 3, 2008

yes, i know the posts have been far between. but i've been kinda busy lately. like going back home to see my family. nacho hung with his P's at their place in Ft Walton, while i drove home with my sister and hung out there. only traces of the Southern accent are left by now.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

this is such a HUGE time waster. i had a couple people at work ask me what exactly it is. if you haven't figured it out already, click the thisissand link at the bottom and use your mouse to make sand designs. just like those tourist thingies at the beach. there's a little square in the upper left. click that for more instructions.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

not anymore. he made it through the move but finally let go some time over the weekend. i came into my cubicle to find his body displayed grotesquely in death. that may be overstating it a bit. can't seem to find the paperclip he was hanging by though. i have a feeling that shot across the room somewhere. we will miss Dangly!

Monday, October 13, 2008

i keep forgetting to post this awesome paint job nacho did on the garage floor after the flood. the darker side is where we park the boat. and we used to have blue tape down to give us a line/guide for backing it in. now, with the paint difference, we don't have to do that. and it fits like a glove!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

so it was a video here that inspired Brian and i to take a look at creating this same effect in Photoshop earlier today. i guess we could have gone out and bought the $2000 lens that will do this for you, but this seemed like a much better idea in the meantime. anyway, here's Brian's attempt in Gimp. even better!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

well, we're all dry now. at least most of it is. i haven't posted anything in a while cuz i've been too busy cleaning up. with most everything out of the garage, we're taking this opportunity to re-paint the walls and floor. nacho did that last weekend and we have a nice 2-tone thing going on in my side. one color for the boat parking and the other for me. i'll get a pic and post it.

also, the field behind us is relatively drained. not dry but drained. unfortunately the guy who farms it is in Fl and won't be back until next week i think. so he'll plow it under at that time. that should make a huge difference in smell. yeah, it's kinda gross.

so now it's just continued cleanup and throwing away. ahhh. nothing like a flood to get you motivated!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

okay, i've gotten questions about this today (mostly email) and hopefully this will help. i've had to go back and pull some old photos since i couldn't take anything last night or this morning. but hopefully this will help.

The Patio

right now the water is actually about a foot over our patio. the patio and the deck are not the same thing. some of you will recall we started building the deck LAST YEAR (i'm not bitter). well, even though IT'S STILL NOT DONE, it's a good thing we have it. the dogs would have nowhere to go. the old deck was about 5ft x 7ft if that. so it's gonna save us for now. anyway, the gravel parking area you see is completely under water and the patio in the background is too. we're using the East steps to come and go (that includes loading the boxers up in the kayaks).

using this photo, the first step is under water and you can barely see the 2nd. and keep in mind, we haven't crested yet!

so i had class last night and didn't get home until after 10p. so no pics of the afternoon flooding. nacho did take some but i haven't pulled those off the camera yet. i'll try to and post tonight. this morning's reading is 25.90. our biggest flood was 2002 and it was 25.25 so we've passed that. we have about a foot of water on the concrete patio. thank god for the deck....even if it's not finished. the Monsters are handling it okay. nacho took them out for breaks yesterday and last night and Butters did great!

this morning was a little rough and we were very late getting out. have to get back into the swing of prepping before leaving the house. of course it would help if i didn't love sleep so much. so i'll post photos later, but you can always check the crappy webcam today if you like. we have it situated in the office facing out to the driveway (away from the river). this is all usually farm field and driveway.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

just got back from checking on the house over lunch and it's all under water now. didn't have my camera with me so no pics, but the field is full and the water is all the way out to the end of the drive. and that's not the end of it cuz we're expected to crest Friday. so we have a ways to go. luckily Peoria River Gauge is still predicting 27.4 but it was 27.3 yesterday. let's hope it holds at that.

we get asked lots of questions every year about flooding and living on the Illinois River, so here's a shot at clearing some of that up....

?do you guys flood?what do you think?

?does it get in your house?no. our house is a raised ranch (see pic), so it gets in the garage not the house. for it to get in the house, it would have to be the "flood of the century". and that could happen, but not to us...yet!?you can still live in your house?yep! everthing is raised up so we don't have issues with electrical or water. it's like any other day but with water added.

?what do you do with all your stuff?we have huge shelving units in the garage and work benches that we've built so we put everything up on those. in a lot of ways, a flood is better than a yard sale cuz it forces us to get rid of stuff you don't want to try and save. you have limited space and time when preparing and we don't want to use that space and time for crap we don't need. it's amazing how instantly you can decide you really don't need those golf clubs after all!

?how bad does it get?depends. each year is different and we may have a year where we don't flood. i don't remember that year yet though. sometimes it's in Spring, sometimes in Winter. this time Fall. in Winter, all that water turns to ice, so we have some pretty awesome ice skating and hockey get togethers! lemons into lemonade people.

?can you still drive in?depends. some years it doesn't make it over the berm and into the yard. others (like now) we'll be an island unto ourselves. when that happens, we kayak in and out each day.

?what about the Monsters?well, that gets a little tricky. but we kayak them in and out twice a day or more for bathroom breaks. Cookie was 8 months old when we had our first flood so she's used to it. this will be Butters first flood, but we spent lots of time this summer working on his kayaking skills and doing swim lessons, so he'll be okay. and we do actually make them wear life vests just in case - Cookie finds it humiliating!?do you have a lot of cleanup when it's all done?yes. you'd be surprised the things that come down the river. one year we had a awesome brown velvet waterbed that landed in our yard. another year we got a Garmin GPS that actually worked after we dried it out. remember the lemons to lemonade thing?

"I couldn't do it. I don't know how you do."IT IS NOT FOR EVERYONE and we don't pretend it is. but it's the rest of the stuff we get all year long that makes it worth it.

levels are predicted at 32 for Henry and 27.3 for Peoria. that means about 3.5ft of water in the garage for us. so we had to spend last night lifting everything up AGAIN. and getting rid of tons of stuff that you realize now you don't need. anyone looking for a set of used women's golf clubs?

Monday, September 15, 2008

why yes we are thanks. and we're in the process of prepping for said fun! no pics yet cuz i'm at work but i do have the webcam back up and running. so you can watch our beach disappear at your layzure!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

in what proved to the be wetest RF ever, i think we had one of the best times. this year's fest gave birth to our new slogan: RifFest Come Hell or High Water!

as usual, i'm usually too busy running around doing whatever that i forget to take picture. so i don't have any of the wii movie screen. but i did manage to click off a couple of Tent City. while we spent today getting ready to be flooded at our house, i wanted to take the time to at least post a few pics from the festivities last night.

highlights

the boys did an amazing job on the tent. i've never seen a tarp so big. and we all stayed dry! thanks Korby and Tucker!

this year, Mr A hired an intern. i think Bob is going to work out well! good luck with the job placement program!